


Thanks for the Laughs

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Genre: Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25907245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: Nate’s phone rings one day as they’re sitting around planning the next job.  It’s Sterling, unfortunately.“Do you have any idea why thirty pizzas were delivered to my house this evening?”  Sterling barks into the phone.  His accent gets funny when he’s mad, Nate thinks.  “Thirty, Nathan!”
Comments: 3
Kudos: 84
Collections: The Leverage Exchange Master Collection





	Thanks for the Laughs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NienteZero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NienteZero/gifts).



One.

Nate’s phone rings one day as they’re sitting around planning the next job. It’s Sterling, unfortunately. 

“Do you have any idea why thirty pizzas were delivered to my house this evening?” Sterling barks into the phone. His accent gets funny when he’s mad, Nate thinks. “Thirty, Nathan!”

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a bit of a problem, there.” Nate says. “But it’s not really my problem -”

“It’s going to be your problem if you don’t rein in that hacker of yours.”

“Enjoy your pizza.” Nate says, and hangs up. He fixes Hardison with a look. “Thirty?”

“And they’ve all got anchovies on ‘em.” Hardison says. When Sophie sighs, he adds, “What? Sterling really pissed me off the last time we had to work with him. I just wanted to give him some extra incentive to not call on us again.”

Two.

It’s been a hell of a week when Sterling finally gets back to his office. Three missing paintings, a very angry Moldovan general, and a pigeon that was, without a doubt, stalking him the entire trip made for an exhausting time. Sterling is quite happy that he can settle down in his office chair with a cup of decent coffee and relax.

Except....

A picture of his daughter normally sits in a place of pride on his desk. It’s still there, but it’s been joined by another picture frame. Sterling picks it up with a frown. The picture inside is of a museum wall and a painting that seems oddly familiar. It takes him just a few more seconds to realize that the painting is one that was stolen probably seven years ago. One of Sterling’s early cases. He never did find quite enough evidence to bring a certain blonde thief to justice, but there’s no doubt in his mind that she was behind the theft. 

Sterling storms out of his office. “Somebody get me the security tapes for the past week!” He barks. “I’m going to have somebody’s head for this.”

Parker stifles a giggle from her perch in the air duct above Sterling’s office. Maybe Hardison’s onto something with these pranks.

Three.

Hardison, if he’s given an opening, will rant about smart devices and smart homes and video doorbells for hours. Hours. Eliot knows this because he was once stuck in the hold of a boat for exactly three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and eight seconds listening to Hardison yell in his ear about how freaking easy it was for hackers to take control of an entire house. 

“What’s taking so long?” Eliot asks. 

“He’s Interpol, he’s got better security on these things than most people.” Hardison says. “There. I’m in. What are we doing?”

“I’m thinking a full-blown haunting.” Eliot says. “Lights flickering, weird noises, the whole thing.”

Sterling puts the condo on the market four days later. 

Four.

Sterling starts each morning by turning on the news while he makes himself breakfast. This morning, he’s particularly interested to see the lead story. It’s been a long road, but he and his team arrested a CEO the night before for a huge corruption scandal. He’s quite pleased he got there before Nate and his little team could swoop in and do their illegal sort of problem solving. Plus, he gave a great interview. His face should be everywhere this morning.

He nearly chokes on his coffee when he switches on the TV. The story is everywhere, just as he thought. But it’s not him being interviewed.

“We were on scene last night with Special Agent Adele Broduer. Agent Broduer has been working for months behind the scenes to stop the fraud happening at Charter Sample Financial Advisors.”

Sophie Deveraux’s face fills Sterling’s TV screen. It’s not really Sterling’s fault that he throws the remote at the TV. Who could blame him?

Five.

Sterling is tired. Frustrated. Angry. He’s ready to arrest a certain ex-art thief and another certain former co-worker, laws be damned. And when he leaves his office one evening to find that his car is no longer in its assigned parking space but that a sleek Tesla is - well, he’s already pulling out his phone to get his team ready to move on Nate’s little group of criminals. 

Except when he pulls out his phone, a key fob also falls out of his pocket. There’s a little tag tied to it. 

Thanks for the laughs.

Sterling hits the unlock button. Well, maybe a new car isn’t a bad tradeoff.


End file.
